Ar.io Name Tokens (ANTs)

To establish ownership of a record in the ArNS Registry, each record contains both a friendly name and a reference to an Ar.io Name Token (ANT). ANTs are Metaplex Core NFTs on Solana that give their owners the ability to update the Arweave transaction IDs their associated friendly names point to.

What is an ANT?

An ANT is a Metaplex Core NFT managed by the ario-ant Solana program. It implements the Ar.io Name Token specification required by ar.io gateways to resolve ArNS names to Arweave transaction IDs. The program handles record updates, controller management, metadata changes, and ownership reconciliation after transfers.

Name Tokens have an owner, who can transfer the token and control its modifiable settings. These settings include record targets, address-resolution TTL values, the ANT name and ticker, and controller permissions.

Ownership and Control

Controllers can manage records, name, and ticker settings, but cannot transfer the ANT or assign additional controllers.

ANTs are minted in accordance with network standards by an end user who can transfer ownership or assign controllers as needed. Because ANT logic lives in the ario-ant program rather than inside each individual token, protocol-level updates can apply consistently across ANTs.

When an ANT is transferred through a marketplace outside the ar.io app, the ario-ant program reconciles ownership on the next interaction and clears previously assigned controllers so the new owner has clean control.

Loss of a private key for a permanently purchased name can result in the name being inaccessible.

Undername Ownership

Undernames can have an owner set on them. This owner is empowered to set that undername as their primary name, remove that undername as their primary name, and control that undername's metadata, such as:

• Transaction ID - the data the record resolves to.
• TTL seconds - the time to live in seconds the data is cached for by clients.
• Owner - the owner of the record.
• Description - the description of the record.
• Display Name - the display name for the owner of the record.
• Keywords - the keywords for the record.
• Logo - the logo of the record.

They do NOT have control over the priority of the undername, which is restricted to the ANT Controllers and Owner.

ANT Interactions

The table below indicates some of the possible interactions with the ArNS registry, corresponding ANTs, and who can perform them:

Undernames

ANT owners and controllers can configure subdomains for their registered ArNS name, known as undernames. These undernames are assigned at registration or added later.

Undernames use an underscore (_) in place of a dot (.) to separate the subdomain from the main ArNS domain.

Secondary Markets

Since ANTs are standard Metaplex Core NFTs, they are tradeable on any compatible NFT marketplace, including Tensor and Magic Eden. When an ANT is sold on a marketplace, lazy reconciliation clears the existing controllers on the next write operation, ensuring the new owner gets clean control.

Additionally, tertiary markets could be created that support the leasing of these friendly names to other users.

Next Steps